350 homes plan for Guisborough farmland is thrown out

A CONTROVERSIAL plan for 350 homes on Guisborough farmland has been kicked out by councillors.

A CONTROVERSIAL plan for 350 homes on Guisborough farmland has been kicked out by councillors.

Nearly 450 letters and emails of objection were received by Redcar and Cleveland Council over plans by Taylor Wimpey North Yorkshire for land west of the Galley Hill estate on Stokesley Road.

The scheme, for a mix of affordable housing, bungalows and executive homes, plus public open space and a play area, was recommended for conditional outline approval by planning officers, even though it would stand outside the permitted development area in the Local Plan.

As part of the planning conditions, Taylor Wimpey would have been asked to give £100,000 towards leisure facilities and £800,000 for better facilities at Galley Hill School.

But the firm must now decide whether to appeal after councillors voted 10-1 to reject the scheme. Taylor Wimpey North Yorkshire agent Russell Hall called the proposed scheme a “logical and sustainable urban extension to Guisborough”.

But three residents spoke against it, with objections including access and road safety, overdevelopment of Guisborough and the loss of agricultural land.

Councillors were advised that several schemes in other parts of the country that didn’t have a deliverable five-year housing supply, as in Redcar and Cleveland at the moment, had been passed on appeal.

But ward councillor Peter Spencer said such national policies were more designed for areas like the south-east.

“If we allow this development, it would be virtually open season for the whole of the borough,” he said.

Moving refusal, Councillor Steve Kay: “If someone in Lingdale wanted to build one house outside the limits of development, it would have been kicked into touch. Here, you are talking 350 homes.

“Eventually, you will just have a conurbation filling the space between Guisborough and Nunthorpe. The people of Guisborough don’t need this.”

And Councillor Valerie Halton said: “If it’s outside the development plan, there have to be serious reasons for allowing it and I don’t see them here.”

Just one councillor, John Hannon, spoke in favour of the plan, calling it a “reasonable site.” He added: “We need to expand and bring expenditure into the borough.”

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